I just stepped inside the cabin after a great rush to drop of Dana´s rain clothes which I forgot in the early our chaos to get everyone ready. I have also passed by Eva´s school to drop of her PE clothes, which I also forgot, since I wanted to film it all. On top of that I have picked the wrong day when I was supposed to meet people and film. It is Friday when I write this and, once again, temperatures outside are warm. I have to say there´s dramatic changes all the time now, weather wise, one day windy and cold, the next warm followed by hailstorms and rain.

I suspect this is how most people deal with the issue of climate change, melting icecaps, greenhouse gases, global warming and oceans that is getting much warmer by the day. People know the problem exists, but doesn´t want to put any effort into thinking about it and then allow the small issues of everyday life take over. And another day just passes by. I have closely monitored how the discussion on the issue is developing in Greenland and the society here as regards to the topic of climate change and how serious they are. Or not. I do note that most of the countries media is talking about it. But almost without exception just in the case of referring to an article or job published by a scientist or an institute who claims either this or that. Lately it has been articles which reveals that the layer of snow and ice haven´t melted at all this year. On the contrary, it has added on its layers. This due to, according to these scientists from Denmark, hurricanes in other parts of the world. However, there´s exceptionally few editorials or opinion pieces on the subject, like it is in the rest of the world, because most people don´t have the energy to get involved, because it makes them depressed. One hopes someone else will do all of the engagement.

However, this fact taken into account, reality is that Greenland is one of the main centers of change on the globe as regards to dramatic climate change and the future of all human kind. The reason is mainly due to the melting of the gigantic icecap which covers most of the island. And this has been dramatic the last decade and in short, even though it might scare some to stop reading, if it continues at the same rate and speed, and nothing indicates it won´t, the level of the ocean will rise to such a level it will forever change the demography of the globe. Maybe you have followed the political games as regards to the Paris accord, which means you then know that the main goal of the treaty is to work to keep the global heating under 2 degrees. Preferably under 1.5. Even if this happens, which it seems very likely quite soon, the ocean levels will rise up to 7 meters or more! Not just around the coast of Greenland, but globally, which for example for people living in New York or Holland, well, this would be an end game.

However, as you know, we have climate deniers in the highest political division, like Trump and his gang who says all this is just crap talk, and one of the reasons we are here in Greenland is to figure out what does local Greenlanders think and believe and see. Yesterday, for this reason, I met Albrecht and his wife and discussed this topic on how they might see any changes and how.

The couple lives in a cozy, warm and comfortable house not too far from where we live. It was almost as coming home to my mum in the old days when she was alive, very organized, clean and pedantic with memory stuff all over the place. As was the dessert and coffee! What a wonderful couple! Albert laughes pretty much all the time, she supported him with comments whilst watching TV and waited eagerly for the time she could serve us coffee and cake. She had to wait almost two hours. Albrecht had been a fisherman pretty much all his life and moved to the settlement back in 1962 when times were better than today.

”Back in the day we could travel all over the place most of the year with dogs and later with snowmobile, but this has become an impossibility the last years.”

“ What does he mean by the last years?” I asked my new translator Ava, since Albrecht speaks Greenlandic only, but she shook her head.

“It was so cold back in the day that when the dogs ran full speed it was impossible to see them due to them exhaling their breaths and causing a big white cloud around them. That´s how cold it was, but those days are long gone. Both the dogs and the cold. But I have always lived with dogs, so times are hard now without them.”

Albrecht knew about of the news and discussions going on as regards to climate change, greenhouse gases, melting icecaps and global warming.

“Look at all these big peat fires we have had lately. There´s no doubt they have all been set off by human beings who have neither skills nor an idea how to start a safe fire. People are getting more akin to the ways of nature by the day.”

I have met other folks here in the settlement that has a long life experience of changes of the local weather and they´ve mentioned that the walrus is gone forever, driven away by noises and smells from motor traffic and the level of the halibut is lower than ever. Almost catastrophic.

”The halibut…there´s no doubt it is due to overfishing” , Albrect notes with a clear voice: ”It isn´t the first time it happens in these waters around here. And I have noticed a dramatic change in the weather patterns lately. It is getting much warmer, I see the water level is rising each day and further north due to a landslide followed by a tsunami, two villages have been abandoned.”

The two villages, Nuugaatsiaq and Illorsuit got hit by a tsunami recently just minutes after the landslide, so the givernment have just taken a desicion they it is too dangerous to move back and locals have to relocate to other places. There´s no evidence yet to say it is all due to climate change, but scientist are sure it will soon happen again. Albrecht doesn´t really know why all this is happening, the climate change and global warming, but it has changed his life. He can´t personally see any advantages to the change. There´s no berries to pick this year, the frost came to early. The roads crack due to the permafrost melting. And his small garden is blooming more than ever. In the old days winter ended late June. We never do find out when exactly back in the day was, butI believe it is very important and smart to listen to people with experiences on a personal level on top of what science comes up with. And for me, right now, that seems to show that science is very much right in their assessment today. So we should listen to those who know.